Happiness is subjective
by Pandora007
Summary: This is the sequel of "What?" story, it starts a few months after the birth of the twin boys, Andy s mother still do not talk to her but everything else is fine in the Sachs-Priestly household. Feedbacks are love. Enjoy! Andy x Miranda. Femslash!
1. Chapter 1

**Happiness is subjective Chapter 1**

**Sachs- Priestly Townhouse- Friday night**

Andy took a step back from the hot stove, while her eyes and hands were busy trying to follow a recipe that Nate had given her over the phone earlier that day. She was trying to make a special dinner for her and Miranda when at around 7:20 pm she heard the distinct footsteps of Manolo clad feet coming down the hallway. This brought a radiant smile to her lips.

Miranda stopped at the entrance of the kitchen so she could admire the vision in front of her. Andy was wearing tight, black True Religion jeans with a white tank top and no shoes. Miranda was surprised at how fast Andy had lost weight after giving birth to their twin boys, for, only two months, later she was almost at a size 4 again.

"Good evening, Andrea," Miranda said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Hey wifey," Andy replied looking at Miranda with a smile.

Miranda smiled back. It still amazed her how Andy could talk to her using endearments because she felt surprisingly fine with that even though Miranda Priestly had never been _someone's_ wife. _They_ always were her husbands'. Miranda never let them have such power over her, but now, she doesn't care that much about giving Andy this sort of control. She trusted and loved Andy more than she ever loved anyone else before this. This was a life she was not aware that she could have. Happiness was never with her for long, and she couldn't help but wonder if someday Andy would wake up one morning and simply leave her.

"Hi," Andy greeted her again, snapping Miranda out of the train wreck of her thoughts.

"Hi," Miranda replied and closed her eyes to welcome Andy´s lips for a quick peck as her soft, long arms went around Miranda's neck.

"I'm cooking you dinner, the chicken breast with cottage cheese lasagna that you like."

"I see you are in good mood so that means you did not burn the kitchen down," Miranda pointed towards the stove.

"Ha ha, it was a onetime thing and you only remember that and not the thousand other meals that I already have made for you," Andy said back, trailing some small kisses on Miranda's jaw.

"Right, thousand meals," Miranda shook her head at such an exaggeration on Andy's part. "What is the occasion?" she asked innocently making Andy stop her sensual assault and look directly into Miranda's sapphire blue eyes.

"What?" Miranda asked again, "Is it some important date that I should have remembered?"

Miranda knew that Andy liked to celebrate occasions which do not have such importance according to herself, like monthly anniversary dates or first kiss or the first time they said 'I love you' but for Andy it was important, so she tried to keep _important_ dates in mind as much as possible and that way she could avoid Andy´s bad mood.

"Eight weeks, Miranda." Andy raised an eyebrow waiting for the chips to fall into place in Miranda's head.

"Eight wee… oh, I thought you´d be 8 weeks only this Monday."

"I know. Precisely, seven painful, excruciating, horrible weeks and five days without making love with you. But I went to see Dr. Blake today and begged him to put me out of my misery and he said I had healed well and fast and I'm doing great, so no need to wait anymore, so, my sweet one," she closed the remaining distance between them, 'tonight I'm all yours and your very fine ass is all mine," Andy said the last part just above a whisper into Miranda´s ear making her wife moan in anticipation.

"What did you do with my children?" Miranda asked trying not to sound too desperate after what Andy had just done to her.

"I sent our two sets of twins and Joanna to Lily's for the night. I pumped enough bottles of milk for the boys for the duration, which will spare me having to be milked like a cow for a few hours," the last sentence made Miranda snort a sharp laugh.

"You're such a lady in your speech," Miranda teased her.

"I know, right?" Andy said back with a grin."Anyway, the girls were thrilled with the idea of a movie night out with Lily, Doug and Tony and lots of junk food."

"I just hope the girls don't persuade them to play poker, the last time they went to Lily´s, Cassidy cleaned out their money," Miranda said absentmindedly, making Andy chuckle.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Evelyn called, she is going to come to visit her grandchildren sometime next week."

"Great, just what I needed," Miranda sighed dramatically.

"Be nice, you know you love to have your mother around," Andy replied, "and besides its good for the boys to have at least one grandmother around, since the other has banished them from her life."

"Andrea…," Miranda started.

"I know, I know. She just needs time to come around," Andy finished the sentence she knew Miranda was going to say.

"Exactly."

"Go take a bath. Everything is set for you. I will just prepare the last detail of our dinner and I will join you in a few minutes," Andy said giving Miranda one more kiss.

Fifteen minutes later, Andy walked into their huge bathroom with a glass of Chardonnay in her hand. She handed it to Miranda and slipped into the marble Jacuzzi to straddle Miranda's lap and then leaned in for a kiss.

They lost track of time just chatting between kisses and touches about Miranda´s day at work and how things were going to be when Andy goes back to work after the end of her maternity leave. She was still so enthralled by the new twins, enjoying the pleasures of motherhood, that if she hadn't loved her work so much she was sure that she would have considered giving it up and becoming a full time mother but of course Miranda put an end to that idea.

More time passed and Andy then was guiding Miranda down the stairs.

"What is that smell." Miranda commented as they reached the foyer.

"Oh my God, my lasagna!" Andy run into the kitchen and to the stove as a small but thick cloud of smoke was filling the air.

Andy opened the stove door and let out a sigh, the food was completely burned.

"I can't believe this," she moved the charred lasagna pan to the sink.

"It's ok Andrea, we can order in something later…" Miranda started to say but Andy cut her off.

"You knew I would screw up with dinner, I'm just a disaster." Andy´s face was clearly broadcasting her disappointment.

"Now, stop with that. Let's go to our room and we can order in something to eat later," Miranda said bringing Andy´s body close to hers. "I have plans for us," she gave her partner a small kiss on the lips, "Eight weeks is just too long." Miranda finished in a whisper, deepening the kiss.

xxxxxxx

"Harder," Miranda breathed out lifting her body up from the bed to meet Andy´s thrusts deep inside of her.

"God, you feel so good, I missed you so much," Andy said, feeling the other end of the feeldoe massage her clitoris.

Andy had no idea when she bought the feeldoe that this double- ended piece of silicone would bring such an intimate bond in the experience of full skin on skin contact, and that it would combine the excitement of a sex toy with the intense pleasure of mutual penetration without the irritation of a harness and the fiddling that such a contraption involved. It was for sure one of the better impulse purchases Andy had ever made.

Andy stopped her movements for a moment making Miranda grip Andy's lower back tight with her legs.

"Don't stop, please," Miranda whined, not wanting to sound like she was begging. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just looking for something," Andy explained with a hand inside the bedside table nearest to her.

"If it's a condom don't worry, I don't think you will get me pregnant," Miranda said impatiently as she moved her body seeking for more contact with the purple object inside of her, and with Andy.

"You're very amusing even when you're desperate, darling," Andy said with a satisfied smile as she found what she was looking for. She brought the object into Miranda´s view slowly while keeping the slow pace of her thrusts.

"What is that?" Miranda asked trying hard to keep her eyes open.

"What you think those are? Handcuffs. And I want to use them on you," Andy said locking one of the cuffs on Miranda's right wrist, not waiting for Miranda´s predictable protests.

"Absolutely not, Andrea, just NO!," Miranda said as she looked at her trapped wrist while starting to push Andy out of her but Andy held tight and moved slow and deeper filling her wife´s aching core with irresistible pleasure.

"God!" Miranda grunted as she felt her resolution slip away.

Andy knew this battle was won and without further ado, she pushed Miranda´s hands above her head and locked the other cuff on her left wrist.

Andy slowly kept moving in and out of Miranda's pussy. She could feel Miranda tighten around the hard silicone dildo trying to keep it within herself which brought even more pressure against Andy's own G-spot and clit.

Having both hands free, Andy massaged Miranda's breasts, the heat and the sweat between them was almost enough to make them both come again at once. Andy put one of her hands between their bodies, drawing small circles around Miranda's engorged clitoris each time she moved out of Miranda and when she pushed back in, almost in a torturous pace and agonizing rhythm.

Miranda couldn't hold back anymore, she needed release, and she needed it now. Her moans and her breathing were increasing more and more as the seconds went by and, to add to the eroticism of it all, she couldn't move her hands and each time she tried to touch Andy´s body or to pull on her marvelous hair, now cut to about shoulder length, she was reminded that Andy had the control here, the control of her body and the control of her raising climax; the control of her soul.

Andy abandoned Miranda's clit, she was now at the same eye level as the editor and had her hands covering Miranda's wrists.

"Look at me," Andy told her wife but at the same time it was hard even for her to keep her own eyes open.

"Make me come, Andrea," Miranda begged and once again she tightened her legs around Andy´s lower back, rocking against her lover's body and a heartbeat later she could feel the trembling of the waves of ecstasy rushing through her whole body.

"Fuck," Andy whispered dropping her head onto Miranda's shoulder as she moaned sweet nothings into her ear. The other end of the feeldoe was doing magic against Andy´s G-spot making her enjoy the ride of her own climax. "Fuck, Miranda."

Andy leaned forward and kissed Miranda. Hard. She could taste herself strongly on Miranda's lips from earlier as their mouth dueled for dominance until the necessity of breathing made them break apart. Then Miranda finally opened her eyes and Andy grinned at her.

Andy caressed Miranda's sweaty forehead, "I love you," Andy whispered and gave Miranda a gentle kiss.

"I love you too, Andrea, but get me out of these," Miranda replied and looked up at the handcuffs which were still holding her prisoner.

"I don't know Miranda, you look really good in those," Andy joked and took the very sticky dildo out of herself and Miranda who whimpered with the loss of contact.

"Andrea." Miranda didn't have to say more than Andy´s name for her to take the hint that she was serious about this.

"Relax woman," Andy gave Miranda a small peck on the lips and rolled over to sit up on the bed and turned on the light, to reach inside the drawer of the bedside table.

Andy searched for the key and, after a few seconds, her search became frantic and she started to look worried.

"What?" Miranda asked, she was not up for games right now, she just wanted to snuggle into Andy´s body and sleep for a while. She couldn't remember when they had a whole night's sleep since the twin boys were born, so tonight she wanted nothing more than to enjoy the opportunity, "Andrea?"

"Icantfindthekey," Andy blurted out in a rush.

"I'm sorry, but I don't speak caveman, speak English."

"I can't find the key," Andy exhaled anxiously.

"Stop with the act Andrea," Miranda grimaced and Andy felt like panicking, screw that, she was panicking.

"I'm not playing Miranda, I could have sworn that the key was right here, I put it here," Andy said taking the drawer out and dumping out the contents on the floor.

Miranda was looking at Andy with incredulous eyes; this couldn't be happening.

"Andrea I don't care if you take these off with your teeth, you will get them off me, now." Miranda tried to sit up in the bed but the cuffs just didn't let her.

"I'm going to call Sarah, she will bring a locksmith."

"What?... No!" Miranda said with wild eyes. "There is no way you will call my assistant and tell her I'm locked to a bed with handcuffs."

"What do you want me to do?" Andy asked sitting close to Miranda. However, when Miranda tried to get closer to her but was held by the cuffs, Andy stood up again. This was not a safe place to be.

"Take. This. Off." Miranda's tone was becoming dangerous. This night couldn't become any worse.

"I will call 911…" Andy started to say but was not even able to finish her sentence.

"Are you high or something? Calling 911 for a situation like this is the same as calling Page Six, I will be on tomorrow´s front page."

Andy massaged her eyes trying to think of something that might help.

"I'm going to kill you Andrea, just as soon I get out of these I'm going to kill you," Miranda said between gritted teeth.

"You know, threatening me will not work as a proper incentive to make me want to help getting you out of those cuffs." Andy stood up and started to put her discarded clothes back on.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to do something," Andy said storming out of the room in frustration.

Moments later Andy came back.

"I called a locksmith, he has a small store close to my old place, he will be here soon. I had to tell him it was an emergency," Andy said and covered Miranda's naked body with the fine sheets.

"It is an emergency, Andrea," Miranda snapped, "I can't believe you could be so careless and, more importantly, I can't believe I allowed you to do something like this to me."

"Can I get you anything while we wait? Maybe some water?" Andy tried to change the subject.

"I think I will pass, I'm afraid you may drown me," Miranda stated simply.

Andy sat at the end of the bed and closed her eyes. She was close to tears but she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't cry, not in front of Miranda, maybe after this night had ended, then she would cry and maybe she would cry a river.

"I'm sorry Miranda, I'm really sorry, I just wanted to do something special for us, I didn't want anything like this to happen." It was all Andy could have the will to say at this point.

Miranda looked into sad brown eyes, she knew she was being too harsh on Andy, but she was upset herself. She let Andy do this to her, she was giving Andy too much power; she was letting Andy do things to her she had never allowed anyone else before. But wasn't that the purpose of loving someone? Give them power and trust them to not hurt or use that power against you? And with Andy she was finally comfortable enough to let everything go and enjoy her life and the love she and Andy shared.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell announced someone.

"Finally," Andy said and stood up from the bed to go open the front door.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Miranda nodded towards the side of the bed.

"Oh, sorry," Andy picked up the feeldoe and tossed it under the bed and then left the bedroom.

Andy came back a few minutes later with a man following right behind her. Miranda looked up at the guy, he was fat and he seemed to come from some horror movie. His hair was messy, he probably rode a motorbike with no helmet, and to top it off, his shirt had two buttons opened showing his hairy bellybutton.

Miranda only shook her head in disapproval and glared at Andy. The kind of glare that clearly was saying _'you better run, because I'm going to slowly kill you and enjoy it.'_ and Andy tried to hide behind the man in an effort to escape Miranda's glare.

"Good evening ma'am, I will try to be fast," the guy said with a tight smile while taking a lock pick from a small backpack that he had with him.

He put one knee on the bed for support as he tried to reach the cuffs above Miranda's head.

"How could you manage to handcuff your mother to the bed?" he asked curious, of course.

"I'm not her mother" / "She is not my mother," Miranda and Andy said in union almost making the man fall on Miranda and making him drop his tool behind the bed.

"Ok, this night has officially become worse," Andy muttered to herself.

"Oh," he looked between the two women, "ohhhh… I get it, sorry," he said moving off the bed and to his knees on the floor so he could reach the tool.

As soon as he put a hand under the bed Andy´s face turned three shades of red, the feeldoe was under the bed and he would invariably find it. He continued his search with his hands and had a shy smile on his face as he looked at Andy but that changed as soon as he grabbed the hard cold object with his hand. His eyes grew impossibly bigger as he of course realized what he was holding.

"Oh my god," Andy muttered as she covered her mouth with a hand, "my hand is smaller, I will get it for you", she tried to cover her embarrassment and to somehow salvage the situation.

"No, no, I found it," he stood with the tool in his hand, "I just got distracted, I, ah…"

"Just stop talking and do your job." Anger mixed with frustration was evident in Miranda´s tone and Andy flinched. Suddenly, a freed Miranda was not an appealing idea anymore.

"Yes, ma´am," the guy wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Something in the older woman´s eyes was making him sweat and he couldn't wait to get the hell out of this place.

Two minutes and half minutes later, Miranda was massaging her now free wrists, and Andy took the opportunity to follow the guy back down the stairs.

"Thank you for your help and for coming at such a short notice"

"No problem ma'am, I'm glad I could help."

Andy handed him three crisp hundred dollar bills. "There is an extra tip for your discretion," she explained unnecessarily

"Thanks ma'am, but I don't think I was very discrete with my comment back there, I'm sorry about that." He apologized sincerely.

"No problem, goodbye," Andy smiled politely and closed the door after he left.

Andy looked up the stairs, she was torn between the options she had; go back to their bedroom, hide in her study or go to the guest bedroom. Something inside her was already telling her that the guest bedroom would be her habitat for quite a few days, or at least until Miranda had forgiven her for tonight.

Andy took a deep breath, she was not a coward and she was not afraid of Miranda, ok, maybe just a little, but whatever Miranda had to tell her she would face it and accept it somehow.

As soon as Andy reached the first floor, she heard the front door being opened and a desperate cry she recognized immediately as that of her children. She turned around and descended the stairs again.

"What happened?" Andy greeted Joanna with a worried look.

"I'm so sorry Andy, I know tonight was very important for you and Miranda but they won't stop crying, I think they miss you and Miranda."

"You forgot Miranda´s scarf, didn't you?" Andy asked narrowing her eyes knowingly as she took Maximilian, who had bright red cheeks from crying, in her arms.

Joanna sighed anxiously and took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, I know the scarf is the only thing that helps them settle down when they are too fussy but I totally forgot," Joanna took another breath and continued her explanation, "I was so busy getting their bottles, clothes and enough diapers ready for the night and it slipped my mind to get the scarf. Please don't let Miranda know it, she will fire me for sure." Joanna was close to breaking down as she spoke.

"Breathe, Joanna. It's ok, I'm not mad, the night didn't go as I planned anyway," Andy gave her a warm but sad smile, "Shh baby, it's ok, mama is here." She cooed to her son's ear while soothing his back with her free hand and the baby started to calm down. "The girls stayed at Lily´s?"

"Yes, when I called Roy to pick us up, they asked if they could stay and your friend said it wasn't a problem." Joanna informed Andy. The girls were nine years old now and were used to play dates and sleepovers at her friend's homes.

Andy dismissed Joanna for the rest of the night, she would take care of her children from now until morning. She had both boys in their baby carriers and headed back up to the master bedroom, she needed to settle them down so she could take a quick shower and then be able to feed them.

"You finally decided to come back," Miranda dryly said from the bathroom as she fastened the silk robe and came into view.

"Don't start, please." Andy´s low broken tone was enough to make Miranda change the whole speech she had in her mind to say about what had happened.

Andy was sad and disappointed with how the evening had worked out.

"What happened?" Miranda pointed to her children. Max was now asleep and Mikael was the one being cranky for a change.

"Can you take care of them while I shower?" Andy handed the babies to Miranda, "I will be out quickly." She didn't wait for Miranda's answer, she just walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

When Andy came back fresh from the shower and wearing silk pajamas, she found Maximilian still asleep and Mikael curled up on Miranda's chest, he was wide awake holding tight Miranda's pinky finger but had quieted down.

"I will take Maximilian to the nursery and come back to pick up Mikael," Andy said simply and leaned to get the baby seat and the receiver of the video baby monitor.

"They can stay Andrea, we have a spare bassinet here for a reason," Miranda said catching Andy's wrist to stop her.

"I'm going to sleep in the guest bedroom," Andy informed without looking at Miranda. She knew she would cry if she did.

"Andrea, I'm not mad, it was an accident that I hope won't ever happen again," Miranda said lightly, "I apologize for my behavior."

"I swear I just wanted us to have a good night together, I've missed us and it all ended in the worst way possible." Andy´s eyes filled with tears and Miranda brushed with her thumb along Andy's face before a tear could fall.

"I know, and I'm sorry too, I just…"

Before Miranda could continue or Andy give her any answer Mikael decided it was time to make his mothers pay full attention to him and started to cry and to bounce his legs, waking his brother as usual and almost immediately Maximilian followed his brother in a chorus of cries.

Later after feeding Maximilian, Andy handed him to Miranda who after making him burp, changing his diaper and sweet talking into his ear, had finally managed to get him to fall asleep in his bassinet. Andy now was feeding Mikael; he was agitated and only quieted down enough to eat when Miranda gave him one of her scarves.

When Mikael felt satisfied, Andy handed him to Miranda who did the same nightly ritual with him before laying him close to his brother for the night. If they were lucky the twins would sleep for about four hours straight.

Miranda came back to bed and Andy immediately snuggled with her, nuzzling her neck, breathing the unique scent of her wife.

"I'm sorry," Andy whispered.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, things happen, darling, and we can't be in control all the time."

Andy was biting her lower lip, her breathing had changed and Miranda noticed. She knew that was an indication that her wife wanted to say something more but was holding back.

"What is it, Andrea?" Miranda asked. She felt herself relax under Andy´s touch.

"It's nothing," Andy replied playing with Miranda´s wedding band.

"I know it's something, what do you want to say?"

Andy took a deep breath and looked into Miranda's eyes with a shy smile.

"You are not banishing the cuffs for good, right?" she asked and her smile grew bigger.

"God, what am I going to do with you?" Miranda faked annoyance and Andy leaned to share a sweet kiss with her. A few minutes later, both were fast asleep until one or both of the twins decided that it was time for another round of eat, poop and then sleep once more.

This was indeed a good life and Miranda didn't have to be scared of it. At least not for the time being.

TBC?


	2. Chapter 2

**Happiness is subjective chapter 2**

**Payback is a ...**

**3 years later**

It was a typical Saturday morning in the Sachs-Priestly household. Miranda had woken up a few minutes earlier. After performing her morning rituals, she had come back to bed and was now reading, or rather criticizing, the latest edition of Elle magazine while admiring her beautiful wife´s delicate snores that she had fought so hard to get used to at the beginning of their relationship but now could not get a good night's sleep without Andy´s adorable sounds close to her.

Miranda decided to let Andy sleep a little longer that day. After all it was just past 9AM and Andy had to be exhausted for several reasons: they had attended a business dinner the night before and when they had arrived home, Andy had dragged Miranda into the shower with her and then made love to her under the hot water. Right after that, Andy had to finish a very important article that was due to be printed in Monday´s newspaper edition, so she had to do a lot of research causing her to come to bed very late.

Andy begun to stir and rolled over to snuggle with Miranda.

"Good morning," Miranda said giving Andy´s face small butterfly kisses as she got rid of the magazine.

"Morning gorgeous," Andy sleepily replied with a smile.

Miranda continued her assault on Andy´s neck until Andy stopped her.

"Do you hear that?" Andy asked raising her head from the pillow.

"Hear what?" Miranda asked with a frown between her eyebrows.

"The sound of silence," Andy said and threw the covers aside revealing her perfect naked body; she was ready to leave the bed when Miranda held her back by the arm.

"It's too early Andrea, come back here." Miranda flashed the famous devilish smile that Andy could never resist.

Andy didn't fight back, she laid on the bed pulling the sheets back up to cover her body and brought Miranda's mouth to meet hers half way in a searing kiss.

After a few minutes, Andy pulled back. "Ok, this is bothering me."

Miranda gave her a glare. "Kissing me is bothering you?" she asked.

"No, of course not." Andy shook her head. "The silence Miranda, your sons are too quiet, this is hardly natural for them."

Miranda couldn't help but grin at her wife´s worried face.

"Andrea, I'm sure they are all right, they are either watching cartoons or already having breakfast with Joanna."

"They are up to something, I'm having this weird feeling and…" Miranda didn't let Andy finish her sentence. She leaned over, bringing their lips together again and Andy gladly opened her mouth to welcome Miranda's warm tongue inside.

"Stop worrying," Miranda said between kisses but as soon as Andy cupped a breast, making Miranda moan from the intimate touch, the door flew open and two small forces of nature came in running before jumping on the bed, causing the two women to break apart.

"Morning mommies," the forces of nature yelled in union.

Maximilian flew directly on Miranda's arms while Mikael jumped onto Andy´s lap.

"Oh my God !" Andy let out as she held Mikael before he could hit her body with full force.

"Morning babies," Miranda greeted her children kissing Maximilian´s forehead. "Did you and your brother have breakfast already?"

"No mommy, we asked Joanna to let us wait for you and mama," Max explained.

"Hey you two, how many times have your mommy and I said that you can't storm into the bedroom without knocking?" Andy asked her twins tickling Mikael´s tummy.

"We forgot," Maximilian said to them and started to giggle.

"Well, practice makes perfect, so let's try this again," Andy said and put Mikael on the ground and nudged Maximilian to climb down as well.

The twins ran back out of the room, closed the door and, a second later, a knock on the door could be heard.

"Who is it?" Andy asked.

"It's us," one of the boys said back.

"Us, who?" Andy asked and Miranda rolled her eyes at the silliness between her wife and children.

"Us. Maximilian and Mikael," Max called out starting to sound impatient from the lack of acknowledgment from his mother.

"You know us mama," this time it was Mikael speaking.

"What do you want?" Andy continued to tease them.

"We want to come in, may we please?," Max put on his most charming voice and Andy could swear he had on his face the perfect puppy-dog eyes that she didn't fall for anymore but Miranda was just too weak for her own good.

"Come on in boys," Miranda decided it was time to end this silly game.

They opened the door again and jumped onto the bed and into their mothers' arms once more.

"Mommy, why couldn't we go with Cass and Caro to uncle Jonathan´s house?" Mikael asked, disappointed.

When they were old enough to have sleepovers at Andy´s friend's houses and fly to visit their grandma Evelyn, the boys started to go to the girls' dad´s house at each opportunity they were allowed to and oddly enough, Miranda's ex husband developed a great relationship with the boys and insisted on having them come along with the girls so they could spend the weekends together, especially now that he was single again and could dedicate more time to his twin daughters and to the boys.

"Because we decided that we wanted to spend some time with you boys since your mama was away for almost a week working," Miranda explained patiently.

"I know, but Uncle Jon had promised to take us to watch the holiday on ice show." Maximilian enlightened their mothers cheerfully.

"We can still go darling," Andy said and ruffed on his dirty-blond hair, "the show starts at 5PM, I just have to type my article that I finished writing last night. Then we will go out to have a late lunch and go to the show, ok?" Andy responded.

"Yay!" Max and Mikael yelled and stood to jump on the bed in their excitement.

"No yelling and no jumping," Miranda warned with a well seeing glare and they stopped immediately.

"Sorry mommy," they said in union and both sat on Andy´s lap and leaned into her embrace trying to hide from their mothers glare.

The four of them had breakfast and spent some time together with the twins talking non-stop about everything they did at Dalton while Andy was away traveling. Afterwards, Miranda went to her studio to take a look at the Book while the boys went to the TV room with Joanna to watch discovery kids channel and Andy went to her office to finish off her article. She was glad that the hard part of handwriting it was over.

Ever since she was young, she was used to organizing her thoughts better if she wrote then down by hand and only after that would she use a computer to write out the final draft. So this morning she only had to type out her article and send it by email to her editor and then simply enjoy the rest of her weekend with her sons and Miranda.

As soon as Andy walked into her office she could feel that something was wrong, she didn't remember having left papers on the sofa and worse, she didn't remember there being crayons all over the place. Andy had been right, the feelings she was having earlier just materialized when she took a few steps closer to the sofa.

"Holy fucking shit," Andy whispered, closing her eyes in denial.

The new leather sofa had crayons stains all over the bright white cushions but that was not the worst part; that was yet to come when Andy took a closer look at what else her angelical twins had drawn on.

Andy started to flip through the papers in her hands. Where she was supposed to read _'White House talks about voting machine hackers'_ as the headlines of her article, it was now displayed a bright yellow sun with a green garden and on the side, there was a house with some fruit trees right in the middle of her article´s ideas. Andy could feel the blood draining from her body and pool in her cheeks.

She flipped to another page, and there was a drawing that looked like people and another that looked like a dog, and above there was an airplane with what seemed like a head coming out of it.

That was enough. Andy took her article, collected the scattered crayons and left her office.

"Miranda," Andy yelled out as she reached Miranda´s studio on the second floor. "Miranda," she said again storming into the studio.

"Where is the fire Andrea?" Miranda asked pulling her reading glasses off her face. "Didn't we just have a talk with our sons about walking into a room without knocking?" Miranda said coolly but smiled a moment later.

"Look what _your sons_ did to my work?" Andy was fuming as she handed Miranda the ruined pages.

Miranda examined them for a few seconds. "They have to improve their techniques and work on the right profusion of colors and space of course, but I think they have talent if we take in consideration that they are only 3 years old," Miranda looked at her wife again. "The classes they are taking at Dalton are certainly helping their intellectual and creative development, wouldn't you agree?"

Andy looked at Miranda as if she had suddenly grown two heads with blue hair.

"Are you out of your mind? This is not school work Miranda; this is the draft of the article that I spent most of my night on. These are my thoughts organized so that I could write my fucking article today and now I have a sun shinning on them."

"Andrea, I don't think you should reprimand them for expressing their artistic aptitude."

"Oh, then I should let mini Picasso and baby Michelangelo ruin my work and say nothing about it?" Andy didn't wait for Miranda's answer she just took her papers from Miranda´s hands and stormed out of the room.

"Andrea," Miranda called in vain after her. She stood from her seat and went after her angry wife as her boys would for sure need her help.

Andy walked into the TV room and went straight to the TV and turned it off which made the twins immediately whine and pout in disagreement.

"Both of you. Move." Andy pointed to the door and the boys quietly followed their mother´s orders. They knew Andy was the cool and funny mom but when she was angry, she was worse than Mommy. They had a little preview of that when they had the great idea of giving Ollie, their pet hamster, a bath using bath oils in the kitchen sink.

Andy opened her office door and guided her twins inside by their hands and made them sit on the ruined sofa.

"Can you both explain to me what this means?" Andy held up the papers between them.

"This is our drawing mama, didn't you like it?," Mikael asked confused, he was sure this was their best drawing so far, better than the one they did on the wall of the living room some time ago and much better than the painting they did on Patricia´s head.

Miranda had reached Andy´s office as well by now and was quietly watching the scene from the doorway.

"No Mikael, I didn't. How many times have I told you guys that you should not draw on anything that was not paper?" Andy asked, annoyed.

"But this is paper, mama," this time it was Maximilian who explained the obvious to his mother and Miranda let out a chuckle that disappeared fast when Andy gave her the Sachs-Priestly stare.

"This is not merely paper, Max. This is my work that I spent a lot of time on and now you and your brother have ruined it by drawing something on it that I don't even understand," Andy didn't raise her voice but she was clearly angry.

The twins looked at Miranda for some kind of intervention but Andy cut their eye contact.

"Don't look at your mom, she is not going to save you this time."

Mikael looked from the paper on the sofa back to his mother. What was so hard for his mama to understand?

"This is our family, mama. This is mommy, Caro, Cassy, Ollie, Patricia and us and this is you coming home," he pointed to the head out of the airplane.

"We missed you mama and wanted to make something for you," Max said and this time his eyes were filling with tears. He didn't want to make his mother mad.

Andy felt her heart clench in her chest, it seemed she was not immune to her son's puppy-dog eyes after all. She looked over at Miranda who remained quiet but also had a slightest purse on her lips.

Andy knelt down on her knees so she could talk with her sons at eye level.

"I'm sorry Max, I shouldn't have yelled at you guys, but you have to understand that what you did was wrong." She brushed away the single tear that had escaped her son´s eyes, "You have lots of drawing and painting books to play with, not on the sofa, not on Patricia, not on the walls…"

"We don't draw on the walls or paint on Patricia anymore mama. She didn't like it the last time, we only do it on paper now," Mikael said in their defense.

"That is good darling, but especially, you cannot draw or mess with my work papers."

"Sorry mama," both boys said.

"I know," Andy brought them closer to her chest, "but you are grounded, no Holiday on Ice later, and no TV for the rest of the weekend."

They leaned back ready to disagree about their punishment but Andy´s firm glare reminded them the last time they started to whine about a punishment and had to spend a week more without TV.

"Come on boys," Miranda finally let her voice to be heard in the office. "Go find Joanna, she will help you with your showers, Roy will be here soon to take us all out to have lunch," she finished and the boys were released from Andy and rushed by their mother and went straight to their bedroom.

Andy sat on the sofa and let out a sigh that she didn't know she was holding and finally looked up at Miranda.

"Say it Miranda, I know you think I overreacted."

Miranda ignored Andy´s words, "Are you coming with us?"

"No, I have to try to organize this mess again and write my article, my deadline is today."

"Fair enough, we will bring something back for you to eat."

"Thank you," Andy stood from the couch and went to her desk to restart her work.

Miranda nodded and was almost out the door when she turned around. "And yes, Andrea, you overreacted," she said quietly before closing the door, leaving Andy behind to ponder her actions.

xxxxxxx

Around 3:40 pm, Andy had finally finished her article and was sending it to her editor when a small knock broke her concentration.

"C´mon in," Andy said as she clicked SEND and turned to see who was at the door.

Maximilian put his head on the side of the door and flashed his signature smile that could melt the Glaciers of Antarctica. Andy showed a similar smile and he ran into his mother´s arms. He was wearing a black Bermuda shorts and a white polo shirt that Ralph Lauren had sent him and Mikael as a birthday present along with a lot of other clothes. Andy lifted him onto her lap and greeted him with a kiss on his nose.

"How was lunch darling?"

"Great mama, Uncle Jon and my sisters were there, we had lunch together," he informed Andy with a toothy smile.

"Great," Andy smiled back but inside she was not that happy. She didn't like the idea of Miranda and her ex husband having lunch together, especially when she was not there, but she decided not to push that button again with Miranda. At least not for now.

"Are you still mad, mama?" Max asked playing with his fingers that were resting against his mother´s chest.

"I'm not mad baby, I'm just upset about what happened, I worked very hard on that article and had to do it all over again."

He looked into Andy's eyes. "I'm sorry mama, Mika and I only wanted to give you a present. We are sorry."

Andy´s heart melted at her son´s words. They seemed so grown up for their age that sometimes she forgot that they were only 3 year old babies.

"I know baby, I'm sorry too." Andy kissed his forehead. "I love you," she added and hugged him tightly.

"Luvs you too, mama."

A few minutes passed. Andy was checking on her emails while softly caressing his back. She was sure he had fallen asleep but then he leaned back from her shoulder and looked at her.

"Are we still grounded?," he asked putting his small hands on his mother's cheeks and locking his dark blue eyes, which were so like Miranda's, with Andy's brown eyes. "We can go to the show and get the punishment next week mama."

Andy had to fight the urge to laugh out loud at her son´s smart mind. "Yes, you are still grounded Max and no show for you guys."

"Even if we ask mommy?" he tried the last card he had in store that often worked.

"Yes, even if you ask your mommy," Andy said softly but firmly and he got the message. This discussion was over.

Max sighed in defeat and rested his head on his mother´s shoulder once again and in a few minutes he was fast asleep with Andy humming a song for him.

xxxxxxx

A few days later, Miranda was in her office and had just sent Sarah to fetch a steaming hot cup of coffee when she opened the book to the last page she had been looking over the night before and her eyes opened wide. She immediately picked her phone and pressed the number one on it.

"Hi my love, I´ve just finished an interview and will be right there so we can have lunch together," Andy said without waiting for Miranda to greet her.

"Andrea, _your sons _painted on a sketch of a Gaultier skirt in the Book," Miranda said quietly but deadly.

"Oh..," Andy stopped what she was doing so she could concentrate on not laughing through the phone, "… and what do you suggest that we do about it?"

"Talk to them Andrea. The Book is off limits and after that, I will ground them until they reach puberty."

"I don't know my love," Andy pretended to consider Miranda's words and then continued, "I don't think you should reprimand them for expressing their artistic aptitude." Andy mimicked exactly her wife´s words from a few days ago and then she actually laughed.

Payback was indeed a bitch.

"I hate you Andrea," Miranda murmured.

"Nah, you love me, admit it," Andy said playfully.

"I don't," Miranda said and chuckled but then pursed her lips in full '_Editor in chief of Runway_' style, "you know what Andrea, the color they choose could actually have more symmetry with the satin Persian green blouse than the original color."

"Oh my God," Andy said in disbelief and this time Miranda was the one laughing over the phone like she meant it.

Tbc...


	3. Chapter 3

**Happiness is subjective chapter 3**

**The Ex is an Ass, always **

Andy thought she was dreaming when she felt the feather light touch on her bare back up her spine to her neck. The touch was followed by soft and tender bites from the mouth she knew and adored so much.

"Wake up, darling." Miranda whispered against Andy's skin making her shiver and then Andy rolled over onto her back.

"I don't wanna." Andy replied groggily.

"Its 7:15 in the morning, Andrea, don't you have to go to work?"

"Not until 10," Miranda's mouth nibbling around her bellybutton was, making Andy to become more and more awake, "I'm waiting for a source to confirm some information."

Miranda stopped and looked up at Andy with a serious expression on her face, "Andrea, you're a respected journalist and a mother, so can you please try to stay out of police lock-ups?"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Andy assured her, "now come here," Andy grabbed Miranda by the Hermes scarf dangling conveniently near her fingers and brought them close together, "I want you."

"I can't Andrea, I have a meeting at 8." Miranda answered as best as she could with Andy's deepening of the kiss, making it hard to be rational.

"You're the boss, Miranda." Andy answered, moving her lips to Miranda's neck to the exact point where she knew Miranda could not resist for long.

"That is the exactly reason why I can't be late and anyway, Roy will be here in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?" Andy smiled wildly as a knowing glint made her eyes sparkle, "we can do a lot of good stuff while you wait." She finished, dragging Miranda more and more on top of her.

"I really can't darling". Miranda stopped Andy, covering Andy´s mouth with her hand, before she caved in and give up the idea of getting to work on time.

"Ok, fine," Andy took Miranda's hand off her mouth, "so, how about we have lunch together and then: Me, you and your office couch for dessert," she waggled her eyebrows, "let's say around 1 pm?"

Miranda only chuckled softly, gave Andy a quick peck on the cheek and stood up from the bed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Andy yelled as Miranda closed the door behind her. Andy turned over and fell back to sleep.

xxxxxxx

Andy was just exiting the elevator on the Runway Magazine floor of the Elias-Clarke Building when she found Sarah chatting with the receptionist while holding tree boxes and two hangers loaded with clothes.

"Hey there," Andy greeted her friend, making Sarah jump.

"Jesus, Andy," Sarah said trying to stop a box from falling to the floor, "sneaky much?"

"Want some help?" Andy giggled pointing to Sarah's load while the both of them started to walk down the corridors leading to Miranda's office.

"No, thank you. God forbid that Miranda would catch me making her precious wife do slave's job." Sarah joked and Andy shook her head at Sarah´s melodramatic choice of words.

"So my dear friend, are you going to tell me what is going on or I will have to torture you?" Andy asked bluntly.

"I have no idea what are you talking about." Sarah evaded the question while juggling her load.

"Cut the crap Sarah, I know something is going on between you and Emily. You two are acting very strange since Nigel´s birthday party.

"There is nothing going on between us," Sarah stopped to walk, "it's nothing really; after you left, Nigel and I were in bed together drinking and having a good time..."

"Did you sleep with Nigel?" Andy almost shouted the words in her shock at the possibility.

"Eww no, we were drinking and then Emily joined us, after that we left together, we shared a cab and I dropped her off. End of story." Sarah tried to resume walking but Andy held her back by gripping a hanger.

"That is more, I can feel it." Andy pressed a little more.

After a few deep breaths, Sarah finally looked at Andy, "Ok Andy, she asked if I wanted to have one more drink, so we got even more drunk, we had sex and the next morning she didn't want to talk about it and kicked me out of her apartment and that is what happened and I really appreciate if you would forget about it." Sarah finished in a serious tone and started walking again and this time Andy let her go, though following right behind like a bloodhound on a scent.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to intrude," Andy said and held Sarah's arm so she could stop again, just a few steps from Miranda's office.

"Then don't Andy, my life is already very complicated."

Andy studied Sarah´s face for a few seconds until Sarah looked away, not wanting Andy to see her cheeks begin to flush.

"Oh my god, you're in love with her." Andy put her hand over her mouth as she realised this.

"Shush, don't you know these walls have ears?" Sarah stomped her heel on the floor, "Just drop it." Sarah whispered fiercely.

"For now I will, but we will talk about this soon," Andy let go of her best friend's arm, "is Miranda busy?" Andy asked and both of them started to walk yet again.

"You will love this," Sarah gave her a sidelong glance before she shared the information, "Nigel called and said the girls' father showed up when they were having a run through and it seems that he is still there."

At the news Andy took a deep breath and opened the main office door so Sarah could pass her with the load of Runway goodies balanced precariously between them.

"Hi Emily," Andy winked at Emily, but didn't wait for an answer, she just continued her path towards Miranda's office.

"Wait, Andy." Emily tried in vain to stop her.

"Hello," Andy said but when she didn't see Miranda at her desk, so she walked to the side of the office and saw Miranda who turned her head to face Andy. Leaning in slightly, with her hand in the back of the sofa, Andy gave Miranda a kiss. The kiss was slow and full of passion. One that clearly said, 'she is mine and no one else's; that kind of kiss.

Miranda was the first to break the kiss.

"Hi my love," Andy repeated more softly and smiled at her wife.

"Hello Andrea," Miranda replied a little surprised at Andy´s attitude.

Jonathan straightened up his tie and cleared his throat.

Andy then turned to the side. "Hi, Jonathan, what brings you here?" She asked and sat very close to Miranda, bringing her wife´s hand to rest on her lap.

Andy had to admit it, Miranda had good taste in men when she choose her ex-husband. He was about 5'10, red-haired and shinning blue eyes; for sure the girls had much of their looks from him than from Miranda.

"Hi, Andrea," he started, "I came to see if Miranda was free to have lunch so we can discuss vacation agreements for the girls."

"I´m sorry, but we already have plans to have lunch together," Andy said in her normal voice and leaned to give Miranda another kiss on the cheek.

"Miranda already told me," he said.

It took him a long while to get used to Miranda's new lover but with time he had to agree Andy was good for Miranda and for his daughters; they were happy around her, so he had to accept it and tried be civil as much as he could in tolerating Andy and visa versa, since is no secret that Andy disliked his guts. Also, now that the boys were in the picture too and he liked them, he had to make an extra effort for the peace remain between them.

"And also, I came to ask if I could take the boys and my girls to go see the holiday on ice this Saturday, it's the last presenta…"

"It's not your weekend with the girls," Andy interrupted him.

"I'm aware of that, thank you," he responded with a hint on annoyance in his voice. "It's not my weekend with my daughters but since I had promised the boys I would take them, I would like to keep my word."

"We will take them ourselves." Andy stated simply.

"Don't you think you were a little too severe with the boys about this punishment?"

"Well, Jonathan," Andy started with her best 'fuck off' smile, "since you have no say about the way Miranda and I raise our boys I won't waste my breath explaining the reasons I grounded them."

"Andrea," Miranda looked at Andy with a knowing glare.

"No Miranda, its ok," he turned his attention to Miranda with a smug smile plastered on his face, "she is right, it's not my call to talk about the boys upbringing."

"Exactly." Andy said.

"Well, I have a meeting that I have to attend." He said fixing his tie again.

As soon as Jonathan started to stand so he could leave he heard the distinct English accent of Emily.

"I'm so sorry Miranda, but she didn't want to wait." Emily rushed as she spoke.

"Hello Mimi," Evelyn said cheerfully and let herself in into Miranda's office, her smile growing bigger when she saw Andy close to Miranda, but that expression changed immediately when she saw who was in her daughter´s office too. "Oh I knew this morning was cloudy for a reason," she said looking at Jonathan. "Hello, Butt-Face."

"Hello, Satan," he fired back, narrowing his eyes malevolently.

"Evelyn." Miranda gave her mother the same glare she had used on Andrea a while ago.

"You know, I was thinking about you yesterday when I was reading my emails, there was an advertisement about Viagra for half the price." Evelyn said seriously and Andy chuckled.

"I know the feeling, I unfortunately think about you all the time I see Botox ads as well." Jonathan replied with a sarcastic edge in his voice.

"Both of you, stop." Miranda said up standing from the sofa and Andy did the same walking over to Evelyn to give her a warm hug.

"Oh my dear, I missed you," Evelyn hugged Andy, "Miranda didn't have much luck or good taste in her previews marriage choices, but with you she won in lottery, you're stunning." Evelyn put a hand on the side of Andy´s cheek as she said the words.

"Thank you, Evelyn," Andy leaned in to give her mother-in-law a kiss on the cheek.

"Anyway," Jonathan fixed his tie once more. "Miranda, nice to see you again," he said taking Miranda's hand and giving it a kiss, obviously knowing Andy wouldn't like the action. "Andrea," he said and obviously didn't make a move to do the same gesture with her. "Satan." He nodded at Evelyn and then left without another word.

As Jonathan walked away, Andy turned to Evelyn, "What the hell is that annoying mannerism with his tie?"

"I know! I thought I was the only one who thought that was extremely annoying." Evelyn laughed out loud at that.

"And what the hell just happened in here?" Miranda asked, looking at the two partners in crime before her.

"What did I do?" Evelyn asked placing a hand on her chest, faking innocence.

"Both of you were completely out of line, with this inappropriate and childish behavior." Miranda snapped crossing her arms and glaring at them.

"Excuse me?" Andy exclaimed. "So it's fine for him to come in here whenever he pleases and I have to back off?"

"We were talking about something important regarding our children Andrea, we were not on the beach having margaritas."

"You're my wife, Miranda, not his any more, in case you don't remember." Andy said resentfully and Miranda could not quite pick out the stronger emotion in her voice; was it anger or sadness?

"Hey, now, enough," Evelyn said reaching out placing a hand on Andy´s arm, "lets go have lunch, my treat," she added brightly. Andy still had her eyes locked with Miranda's, "I'm dying to see my boys, they must be so big by now, it's like what, two months since I last saw them?" Evelyn tried to change the subject and Andy just smiled sadly at her.

"I lost my appetite; you two go and we will talk later at home." Andy said and gave Evelyn another hug, "it's good to have you here, the twins ask about you all the time."

"I brought them lots of toys and for the girls, new cell phones that I bought in Tokyo. Can you believe these silly things can now take pictures under water?" Evelyn was trying hard to make peace between the two women.

"I'm sure they will love everything," Andy smiled and sighed, "I've got to go," she gave Miranda one last look and walked away.

"Andrea," Miranda called after her, but Andy was already out of sight.

Miranda walked to her desk, sitting down and leaning back on her chair, eyes closed praying that Evelyn would not start talking.

"Mimi," Evelyn started.

No prayers answered today.

"Drop it, mother." Miranda opened her eyes and gave Evelyn a serious, icy stare.

"What? I was just going to advice you to not repeat the same mistakes you did before, you will never find another person like Andrea, who loves you so much and who can keep up with your shitty moods."

"I said, drop it." Miranda said firmly.

"Ok, shutting up now." Evelyn mimed zipping up her lips, making Miranda roll her eyes.

A few minutes passed, with Miranda now working on her laptop and Evelyn clearly bored and desperate to say something.

"I'm hungry, can we go now? I still have to meet my Bridge friends."

Evelyn just couldn't be silent for long and Miranda didn't have much choice other than ask for her coat and bag and go have lunch with her mother.

xxxxxxx

Around 6:20 PM Andy finally arrived home. After the argument with Miranda the rest of her day had been simply horrible. Besides not taking any of Miranda's calls or those of her assistants for that matter, nothing had gone well for her at work as either. To add this chaos, the information she was expecting hadn't worked out as she wanted to.

Andy was checking her mail that Joanna had the habit of leaving on the table closest to the stairs. She tore a letter open and started to read it, with a slight frown between her eyes, when she heard the door open and a moment later Miranda came into view holding her Birkin bag in one hand and her cell phone close to her ear with the other.

"I don't care if you have to scale Mount Everest, just make it happen, Sarah." Miranda finished, not waiting for an answer before shutting the phone.

"Hi," Miranda put her coat and bag onto the chair next to the door.

"Hi, you're early." Andy replied distractedly and looked back at the mail in her hands.

"I know. Evelyn wants to take us all out for dinner so I thought that we could wait for the boys to come back from Judo practice and get the girls on our way to the restaurant."

"Sure," Andy said and quickly put the letter she had been reading between her other mail.

Miranda took a step closer to Andy and put a hand on the small of her back. "I'm sorry for today."

"I'm sorry too, I was childish, I just…" Andy exhaled a tired sigh, "… the guy gets on my nerves."

"You have nothing to worry about it, Andrea, Jonathan is a good father to the girls, I can't just banish him from my life." Miranda said quietly while rubbing small circles on Andy´s back.

"I know, I just hope he finds a new Barbie bimbo to date soon, so he stops being so friendly with you." Andy finally looked up at Miranda, "I wouldn't survive if something bad happened with us because of him." Sadness and unease were evident in her voice.

"I love you, Andrea, you don't have to ever worry about something like that, happening. I'm faithful to you and our family," Miranda said firmly, and the look in her eyes gave Andy the sense of security that she desperately needed.

"I love you, too." Andy smiled at her.

"Let's try to forget about today and enjoy some time with our family." Miranda said in reply and brought Andy´s body closer and gave her a sweet kiss on her cheek and small ones down her neck and Andy just melted at the contact.

They spent a few minutes in the same position, with Miranda holding Andy in her arms, neither of them wanting to break apart, but they would had to go soon to meet Evelyn.

"I'm going to get some water, do you want something?" Miranda asked breaking the silence and Andy simply shook her head.

Miranda gave Andy another kiss and then let go of her, but as soon as she reached the anteroom that lead to the kitchen the front door opened again and Joanna walked in with two sweaty twin boys in tow still wearing their little Judo outfits.

The boys were holding Joanna´s hands but as soon as they saw their mothers were already home they let go of Joanna with happy smiles on their faces.

"Mommy, mama," the boys yelled and ran to them, but contrary what Andy expected, the boys ran past her and continued onwards until they were enveloped by Miranda's arms in a hug.

"Hello babies," Miranda kisses her twins.

"You know," Andy put her mail on the table, and turned to them, "I had to carry you little brats for nine months and then suffer hours of labor pain and you run to your mother first?" Andy put her best fake angry face.

"Mama is _jelus_." Maximilian whispered loudly enough to everyone to hear.

"Yes darling, your mama is jealous." Miranda smiled kindly at them, "now go give your mama a kiss, we are going to pick your sisters at the ballet and have dinner with your grandmother." She explained patiently.

"Yay!" they yelled and Miranda let go of them.

"No yelling, boys." Miranda raised an eyebrow to give emphasis to her point and the boys ran to Andy´s arms this time.

"Oh, now you run to me, huh?" She lifted her sons, tickling them in the process.

"I love you, mama," Mikael grinned sweetly.

"I love you both. Now go shower," she put the boys on the floor again, "stinky boys" Andy held her nose in jokingly.

"We don't stinky mama, we are babies." Maximilian said, explaining his logic and then both boys followed Joanna up the stairs to their bedroom.

"I'm going to bring my mail in my office and then read my emails, you call me when they are ready to go." Andy said and left the hallway to head for her office.

xxxxxxxx

–**Outback Steakhouse–**

When they arrived at the restaurant Evelyn was already there waiting for them and the twin boys just for a change, ran to greet their grandma.

"Grandma," the boys yelled excitedly and Evelyn only had time to move her chair away before welcoming the boys in her arms.

"Oh my God, who are you?" She asked the boys.

"It's us, grandma." Mikael replied, confused.

"Can't be. You're too big to be my adored grandsons." Evelyn joked and the boys squirmed in a fit of giggles.

"Hey, grandma," Carolina said leaning over to give Evelyn a hug as well.

"Hi sweetie, you look beautiful Caroline and so do you Cassy," Evelyn brought the other girl-twin into her arms.

The family time was going well, Evelyn gave the boys one toy each, a Ben 10 talking doll, the rest she would give them the next day since Miranda had forbidden Evelyn to make the boys too excited with toys and therefore mess up their bedtime. To the girls she gave the new cell phones.

Cassidy and Mikael were on Andy´s lap and Caroline behind them holding Maximilian while Evelyn was taking pictures of them, all. The girls were thrilled with their new gifts and couldn't wait to upload the family pictures to their Facebook pages.

When the food arrived everyone started to eat and girls only sat still when Andy told she was going to take the phones away if they didn't stop to play with them and have their dinner.

"Mommy?" Maximilian put his little hand on Miranda's cheek so she could give him her undivided attention.

"Yes, darling." Miranda looked at her son and watched as with his other hand he got a very stick with cheese French fry and offered it to her.

"Why can't we have dinner here every day?" He asked excited at the idea. It was a rare event to them to be spoiled with greasy French fries with bacon and cheese.

"Because I don't want you to have a heart attack before you reach your fifteen." Miranda said and accepted the fries offered by him, she just didn't have the heart to say no to such kind gesture.

Cassidy and Caroline had Mikael´s high chair placed between them, so they could assist their little brother with dinner even when he had told them countless time that he could eat on his own. He was just telling her sisters and Evelyn that they would have a plant a tree and save the world day tomorrow at Dalton, and then they would draw and make a collage with popcorn.

Miranda noticed Andy was quiet, not like her when they were having family time. She didn't even take anything from Miranda's plate like she usually did. Miranda whispered something into Maximilian´s ear who was sitting on her lap and then she put him on the floor and he scampered over to where Andy was sitting. He lifted his arms indicating he wanted her to pick him up.

"Hi baby, you're getting tired?" Andy asked as he dropped his head onto her shoulder.

Max then whispered something into her ear and leaned back to look at her, grinning wildly at her and Andy could not help but smile back at at her son.

"I love you and your mommy, very much as well, baby." Andy said to him and looked over with a weak smile at Miranda who was sitting just to the other side of Maximilian´s chair.

"Are you sad, mama?" He asked sounding worried and Andy looked at him again; he was still very young but he was also extremely perceptive.

"No baby, I'm just tired." Andy didn't want to make her son worried. She just couldn't stop thinking about the letter she received earlier.

"You don't have to read a story for us tonight." He offered and Andy decided not to think about the letter and the implications of it and just enjoy the night as it happened. She was living her dreams, with a wife who loved her and a family that she adored, and they would always support her unconditionally.

"Hum, can you read for me and your sisters then? She asked smiling at him. "Until we fall asleep."

"Mika and I can try, we will finish _'The tango makes three'_ book." He was now bouncing with excitement on Andy´s lap.

"Baby, we already read that book four times."

"I like the penguins mama," Max began, "can we have a penguin?" He asked with his dark blue eyes shinning with the possibility of a new pet.

Andy let out a laugh, "I don't think your mommy would like that, but you can ask her later."

"Yay!" Max yelled and Andy hugged him, tickling his sides and the both of them laughed.

Miranda kept looking at her son and wife interaction, she wished she could make Andy laughs and be happy all the time but life just not work as we always plan.

"Mika?" Max called to his brother who was trying to feed Caroline some of his ice cream, "mama said mommy will let us have a penguin."

Miranda was still lost in thought when Maximilian´s words finally reached her ears.

"What?" Miranda snapped, and Andy couldn't help but laugh out loud of Miranda's hysterically funny expression.

Wiping tears that had escaped from laughing so hard, Andy shook off her melancholy and decided that nothing else mattered for now except her family.

TBC…


	4. Chapter 4

**Happiness is subjective chapter 4**

**Popcorn, anyone?**

Andy had been looking at a blank screen for a good fifteen minutes now. She had a deadline for a freelance job for the New York Times, but she just couldn't concentrate enough to write. To make it worse, her phone was ringing nonstop to the great delight of her assistant, Daniel, who was trying to work on his laptop and not to laugh at his boss's face each time her cell or work line rang. She had just finished talking to her brother who promised he would come to visit her and his nephews a few days later, when her cell phone started to ring again.

"I hate my job, I totally hate my job." Sarah said as soon as Andy picked up.

"Hello to you too, Sarah."

"What did you do to Miranda? She is in a terrible mood," Sarah accused her friend.

"I'm innocent this time, I didn't do anything."

"It can't be. She just arrived from the bikini photo shoot and she made a poor model cry saying that she looked like a Sumo player wearing a bikini and she fired two people of the publishing department of Elias-Clarke," Sarah stopped so she could breathe after her tirade. "You're not depriving her of sex, are you?" Sarah asked.

Andy couldn't help but laugh, "no I'm not, in fact we had an incredibly night of makeup sex last night after the whole Jonathan fiasco."

"Ok Andy, I don't need to know about my best friend and my boss's sex life, I already have enough traumas with her terrorizing me on a daily basis."

"Why do you still work for Miranda? You can get a job at any place you want now, I can hire you to work for me here at the Mirror."

"I like what I do Andy, I like to work here," Sarah said honestly.

"Yeah Sarah, as if working for Miranda was the eighth wonder of the world."

"It's not, she is hard to work for but she expects something from me. She demands and pushes me to do my work properly and I like what I do here, I always wanted to work in this world and you know it."

"Ok, I got your point," Andy said, "but then, my friend, you have to deal with her temper today."

"I knooooow," Sarah grunted over the phone.

"How are you and Emily doing?" Andy asked and Sarah grunted again.

"The same, she only talks to me about work and nothing more."

"You know she will never return your feelings, right?"

"I know," Sarah said sadly and then she cleared her throat, "I gotta go, you have a good day."

"Bye Sarah. I will try to talk to Miranda later."

"Kay, bye."

Andy took a deep breath. "Ok, let me put my brain to good use," Andy said more to herself than to Daniel and again her phone started to ring. "Damn it," Andy said, frustrated, but her face lightened up immediately when she read the ID name shining.

"Give up, Andy." Daniel chuckled.

"Hey baby," Andy said it with a smile which gave immediately away who was on the other side of the line to Daniel.

"So whipped," Daniel whispered with a smile and turned his attention back to his laptop.

"How is your day going?" Miranda asked as a way of greeting.

"Not so good," Andy leaned back on her chair, "I'm trying to write my article but so far, nothing."

"I'm sure you will do your job with excellence."

"Yeah, we'll see, now, do you have time to have a quick lunch later? You still owe me for yesterday," Andy teased.

"Do I? Because I was pretty sure I had paid you with extra fees last night," Miranda teased back.

"This time your debt will only be paid when I say so," Andy had the most adorable grin on her face.

"Be careful Andrea, the pride precedes the fall."

Andy laughed heartily, "Anyway, do you have time or not?"

"I'm sorry darling, I just came from a terrible Photo shoot and I have a board meeting in half an hour."

"It's ok, I wouldn't have much time anyway, Daniel and I are expecting a phone call from a source to meet him later."

"Ok, I will let you do your work now. Have a good day, Andrea. I love you."

"I love you too," Andy replied and disconnected the phone.

"And I love you three," Daniel said with a giggle making Andy roll her eyes at his silliness.

"Get out you jerk," she said putting on her best fake angry boss face, "and come back only to tell me when Matthias has called you, I'm going to turn my phone off so I can write this article or I will never get it done." She did what she said and put the phone inside her purse.

"Oki doke," Daniel said as he shut off his laptop and walked out of Andy´s office to his own desk.

**-Dalton school-**

"Ok class," Ms. Steinbrecher, the main teacher of the class started trying to get the attention of the little devils, "now that we had planted the trees and watched the video about how nature needs our help, we are going to do the collage with the popcorn. You have to create a picture of what you like the most in nature, ok?"

"Ok," the whole class screamed in union.

"Joshua," Ms. Steinbrecher said with a stern look, "let Frederic alone and give his pacifier back to him, please."

Joshua was Nate´s son. He was a year a few months older than Mikael and Maximilian but the twins had attending Dalton´s Pre School classes since they were two years old and showed highly intellectual development, so they could start kindergarten at the age of three.

Miranda was not so thrilled when she was told her twin boys had to attend the same class as Andy´s ex son but since was the only class available for the twins to remain together. Furthermore, Andy had assure her that the class was well monitored by the teacher and an assistant and that the kids would be fine in a class with older children, Miranda had no other option than to allow her happy boys to start the class.

"Mika," Maximillian called his twin, "let's draw a tree and Patricia."

"I want to do a picture of Ollie too," Mikael said as he received from his teacher the package with some popcorn, a few crayons and glue.

"That is a great idea Mikael," she said with a smile to her youngest student, "can you help Frederic with his drawing too?" she asked the boys.

"Yes, ma´am," they replied and Ms. Steinbrecher sat the sobbing boy on the small table with the twins and another mate. It was not the first time that Joshua had tormented Frederic.

An hour later, Maximillian was almost done with his tree drawing. Ms. Steinbrecher was watching his paper. _'This boy for sure has an aptitude for art, no wonder he is a Priestly, she thought and smiled to the boy and moved to the next table to watch the other student's creations.'_

"Max," Joshua called for him as he approached the table, "look what my daddy gave me," he showed to the others a few corn grains.

"What is that?" Mikael asked amused with the yellow little balls.

"My dad said is that thing that turn into popcorn." Joshua answered.

"Nice, did you use it on your drawing?" Max asked already thinking of asking some of the yellow balls to use on his own drawing.

"No, I did this, look." he took a step back.

Joshua put a corn grain up his nose, he inhaled and blew away making the corn land on Frederic´s shoe.

"That´s gross," Mikael said with a face.

"Yeah," Max continued for his brother, "it's not nice, he is your friend."

"You're a girl," Joshua said laughing at him.

"I'm not," Max fired back indignant.

"I dare you to do the same, if you hit Emily, you win," Joshua said pointing at a pretty Redhead girl sitting on the next table and then offered Max a corn grain.

On the 4th floor, Caroline was bored looking at the board, to what the teacher were writing, she already knew how to solve all of those math equations, until she looked at her side and saw her sister taking deep breaths.

"Cassy, are you all right?" Caroline asked with a hint of concern.

"I feel funny," Cassidy said to her twin.

"Funny how? Tummy ache funny?" Caroline put a hand on Cassidy´s forehead.

"No, it's more like a bad feeling." She took her sister´s hand off her head.

At that, Carolina giggled, "yeah, yeah, be honest and say that you are bored with this damn math class."

"I'm serious Caroline, I think I'm going to ask to go to the restroom and take a look on our brothers." She said already leaving her seat.

"Whatever Cassy," Caroline said half laughing at the smart idea her sister had to miss class.

**-The Mirror Newspaper-**

After a soft knock Daniel put his head inside the office.

"Andy, did you finish your article?" He was about to say more when Andy held up a hand for him.

"Now I did," she smiled at him leaning back on her chair and exhaled a satisfied sigh.

"Great, because Mathias just called, he said he finally got the photos you asked for and he is waiting for us at the same location."

"Finally, give me a second to send my article and I will be right down," Andy answered and in less than a minute she sent her email and left the office.

**-Runway Magazine -**

"Miranda," Sarah stormed into the conference room holding Miranda's coat and bag and Miranda frowned at her for her audacity to interrupt such important meeting, "I'm so sorry," Sarah said already knowing the reason of Miranda's look.

"What do you want?" Miranda's cold voice filling the silence of the room.

"There was an emergency at Dalton with Maximilian and they are taking him to the hospital. I called Roy; he is waiting for you already."

Miranda felt all her blood vanish from her face, but she didn't have time to faint now and in one fast move she stood up from her chair without another word and took her coat and bag and in her natural fashion way ran to the elevator.

**-Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital-**

Andy came running up to the hospital front desk.

"Excuse me," she said trying to find her voice after all the running. "I'm looking for Maximilian Priestly, he was brought here maybe an hour ago?" Andy said in a rush. She will only be able to let her heart to beat normally again when she finds out that her son is ok.

The nurse looked at the chart in her hand and turned her attention back to Andy.

"Yes ma'am, he is in observation room 2 with Dr. Kwok, his father brought him in…"

The poor nurse didn't have the chance to finish her sentence.

"He does not have a father," Andy said and walked away leaving the nurse with no other option than to run after her.

"Ma´am, I'm sorry you can't get in there," the nurse said trying to take a hold of Andy´s arm. "Are you related to the patient?" she asked in vain as they reached Room number 2 and Andy stormed inside.

In the room, Miranda was holding Maximillian close to her chest, his cheeks red from crying but he had calmed down a little. Cassidy held his hand and Jonathan was standing close to his daughter.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Andy said directly to Jonathan, loud enough to startle Max who started to cry again. "You're not his father, don't you ever say that again," it was clear to all of them why Andy was so angry.

"Andrea," Miranda tried to intervene and nodded to the nurse that everything was under control and the nurse, that wanted nothing more than leave, did exactly that.

"I didn't say I was, they just assumed and I didn't deny because was the only way I could stay with him until Miranda or you arrived," Jonathan defended himself.

"Andy," Cassidy said with tearing eyes, she didn't want to cause any trouble when she called her dad for help.

Andy kneeled down in front of Miranda and Max immediately melted in the warmth of his younger mother.

"It's ok baby, you're going to be fine," Andy soothed, caressing his back. She felt her eyes filling with tears but had to try to sound confident to her child and herself.

"I called you but your phone went to voice mail, I called Mom but she was in a meeting, I tried Grandma but she flew this morning to Boston with her friends, so I called dad, his office is just two blocks away from school, I was worried about him." Cassidy said looking at Max who was still holding her hand. "I'm sorry I upset you."

"I'm not mad darling, I was just very worried about your brother. No one said anything about what happened to him." Andy held Cassidy's hand, "What happened?"

"I don't know for sure, I just took a break to go see how he and Mikael were doing and when I arrived he was crying and Ms. Steinbrecher was trying to look inside his nose, it seems he put something in his nose and couldn't take it out."

"I didn't want to do but he said I'm a girl," Max said between sobs and Andy tightened her grip around him.

"Who said?" Andy asked curious.

"Joshua of course," Miranda answered for Cassidy, "I told you from the beginning that it was not a good idea."

When Andy was about to answer, a male nurse walked into the room.

"Hey big guy, are you ready to try again?" he said with a smile but as soon as he walked over the chair, Maximillian decided to give everyone in the room a solo show of crying symphony and left Andy´s arms so he could be once again in Miranda's embrace. He knew by experience that no one would be brave enough to take him from his mother´s arms.

"Where is his doctor?" Andy asked standing up.

"She is coming, I'm just going to prepare him for the procedure."

"I want to wait for her if you don't mind." Andy said not trusting a nurse to look after her child.

"Andrea," Miranda called her wife, she knew Andy had little control over her words and actions when her children were sick.

"No Miranda, I want to talk with the doctor first," Andy said firmly but inside she was close to panic.

"Ma´am, I'm only going to put him on the exam table and set up the instruments."

"Andrea, he knows what he is doing." Miranda said.

"I'm his mother Miranda, I know what I'm doing too."

After a brief pause to collect her thoughts, Miranda looked up to her wife, "He is my son too, Andrea."

Miranda tried to use her usually neutral voice but Andy´s insinuations had hurt her deeply, however, Andy was too worried about Max to even notice the nuance of her words and for that, Miranda decided to not make a huge deal of it. At least for now.

The door behind them opened up once more, and this time the pediatric doctor was the one to walk inside the room holding an X-ray.

"Hello Mrs. Priestly," she addressed to Andy, "it seems this little guy and his brother can't be away from trouble for long," she said trying to light the mood, she knew already that Andy was visibly terrified.

"Yeah. They have a magnet to trouble." Andy tried to smile and bend over so she could place a kiss on Max forehead.

"Well," the doctor put the x-ray on a film viewer, "the grain is deep in his nose and since his nostril is small it makes it difficult to reach the object, and him crying and stressed makes it even more impractical, so we will have to sedate him."

"What?" Andy felt dizzy immediately and Miranda had to stand quickly trying to hold Max on her lap and her soon to faint wife with her other hand, helping her on the closest seat.

"Andrea, calm down please."

"Miranda he is too young," Andy couldn't hold anymore and tears started to come down freely on her cheeks.

"Don't cry mama," Max tried to comfort his mother, reaching her cheek to wipe her tears only making Andy to cry even harder.

"Jonathan, can you and Cassidy wait outside, please?" Miranda asked and Jonathan nodded guiding his daughter outside the room.

"Mrs. Priestly," Dr. Kwok sat at the chair next to her, "the procedure is simple and I assure you he will be fine."

"Why can't you do that while he is awake?" Andy asked between sobs.

"It will be better for him do to the procedure while he is asleep, he won't feel anything."

Andy looked over to the doctor and then to Miranda, with pleading brown eyes, she needed Miranda's straight right now to assure her that her son would be fine.

"He will be fine," Miranda put her hand on Andy's cheek, "Caroline once put a doll's eye in her ear, and she had to be sedated. He will be fine." Miranda repeated with conviction and Andy laid on her embrace as well.

"Miranda, if something happens to him…" She whispered.

"Andrea, nothing will happen to him," Miranda said and shifted Max in her arms and he naturally laid his head over her shoulder.

"Can we start?" Dr. Kwok asked and Miranda stood up nodding in agreement.

Miranda walked over the table caressing Max´s back all the way there and all of sudden when Miranda´s short hair started to tickle his nose, Max straighten up a little on Miranda's shoulder and let out a big sneeze, making the corn grain and some unpleasant nose stuff fly directly on Miranda's black Valentino blouse.

"Bless you, son," Miranda said and Andy run over them hugging Max close to her chest.

"Sorry mommy," Max giggled at the face his mother did looking at her shoulder.

"Thank you God, thank you," Andy whispered as a mantra over his head.

"Well, it seems someone did the job all by himself," Dr. Kwok said with a smile, handing Miranda a tissue.

"There is no dry cleaning able to make that disappear," Miranda said wiping her blouse with a purse of her lips that soon became a smile. She was glad her son was fine and her wife could finally breathe in relief.

Dr. Kwok came closer to exam his nose for any trace of blood and said that everything was fine.

"Do I get a lollipop?" Max asked making his best charming face. He remember the reward that Mikael got the last time he was in the same emergency room for sticking his hand into a plastic candy jar and getting it stuck in it.

"Of course sweetheart," Dr. Kwok said and took a lollipop from inside of her coat pocket.

xxxxxxx

After leaving the hospital, Miranda called Emily to inform her she was taking the rest of the day off and Andy did the same, she was feeling physically and emotionally exhausted.

As soon as they arrived home they were greeted by a very tearful Mikael. Caroline and Joanna had explained to him that Maximilian was fine but he was worried about his twin and had refused to eat or nap until his brother was home. Miranda had talked to Mikael about what happened and when Max shared the lollipop with him, everything was forgotten.

Andy then gave Max and Mikael a bath and late lunch and the five of them spent the rest of the day snuggling together in the TV room while Miranda had retired to her studio to take care of a last minute crises in the Fashion world that had to be included on the magazine´s next issue regarding mason Chanel and the new jobless, the design Galliano. She would make sure Runway gave the news the attention it required but without much relevance. She had already refused to attend at least 3 of Galliano´s calls and frankly he didn't deserve that much consideration for the inappropriate comment he did.

Around 9:10 pm Andy was leaving the twins bedroom after finally had put Mikael to sleep after reading a few pages of 'The runaway pancake' book, she took the stairs and went to Miranda's studio to pick up Maximillian that by now must had fallen asleep. Andy opened the door without knocking afraid of waking up her child in the process; she peeked inside and couldn't help but smile at the scene she was graced by. Miranda had Maximillian buried on her left side, helping him to hold his warm milk bottle. They had agreed since the boys were 2 years old to end the habit of warm milk at night to avoid harming their oral hygiene, but today was an exception.

Miranda had received the Book early tonight, and was busy between making notes and browsing the pages of the Book with her other hand. Maximillian was visibly tired but his shining blue eyes were interested in what his mother was saying.

"Do you like this color, darling?" Miranda asked him, pointing to the yellow abstract floral bikini.

He only shook his head negatively.

"Me neither," she made another note to make sure Nigel had the last Emilio Pucci photo shoot redone, "Perhaps next season." She added and gave Max a light kiss in his forehead, smiling at the silliness of the ritual she developed with her child.

Andy closed the door once again, she knew Miranda would put him in bed as soon as he finished his bottle. She then went to the TV room.

"Girls," she said after knocking the door, "don't stay up late, ok?"

"We won't Andy," Caroline answered.

"Will you come to say goodnight?" Cassidy inquired.

"Of course darling, let's say… half an hour?" Andy asked.

"Ok," both girls said and Andy winked at them leaving the room.

Andy went straight to her office, she thought of calling Nate to give him a piece of her mind, how irresponsible of him to give a kid corn grains, but she was still feeling nervous for the events of the day so she decided to call him only the next day. She was also feeling very guilty for not answering her phone when the school and Cassidy called. What kind of mother in her right mind would turn off a cell phone while having toddlers and 12 years old children at school? She only knew about what happened when Miranda had instructed Sarah to call Daniel, she knew they would probably be working together.

Andy reclined in her chair and let out a tired sigh, he had no idea what she would have done if something more serious had happened to Max and she was not there to help her child. Tears once again filled her eyes, she needed to be comforted and she knew Miranda would do that later, but right now she needed a particular kind of comfort that only the people she was loved by the most part of her life could give her.

She picked up her phone and pressed speed dial #09 and waited.

"Hello," a male voice said.

"Dad," Andy´s voice was weak and unsure.

"Andy," Richard whispered back. "How are you, darling?"

"I miss you dad and I needed you and my mom to be here today," Andy said quietly wiping off the tears with the palm of her hand.

"Something happened?" His voice was laced with concern.

"Maximilian had an accident at school today, but he is fine now," Andy added the last part before his dad could think of the worse.

"Who is it Richard?" Andy could hear her mother´s voice getting closer.

"It's Andy," her father said and handed the phone over to his wife.

"Hello," Kate said.

"Mom," Andy said broken, she needed her mother to love her again, she wanted her children to have the other grandmother they barely knew.

"What do you want Andy?"

"I just needed to hear your voice mom, Maximilian got hurt today and I was beyond scared and…"

"Are you still living in sin with that woman?" Kate said bluntly cutting Andy off.

Andy took a deep breath; she knew what was to come.

"Yes, mom, I'm still happily married to Miranda and we have four amazing children."

"Then we don't have anything to talk about anymore. And just so you remember, those girls are not yours."

And then the line was dead.

Tbc…


End file.
